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An author gives local students kudos for help on his latest book.

By ELISABETH DYER, Times Staff Writer
Published December 14, 2007

After his sister died and his father left, Marcus started getting into trouble at school. Big trouble. He was about to be kicked out.

But wait, said a class of sixth-graders at Monroe Middle School. How did the sister die?

Was she hit by a bus?

Shot?

The sixth-graders were previewing G. Neri's manuscript, Chess Rumble. Neri gave it to their teacher, Karen Bachman, to get feedback from kids in his target audience.

And the students had a few questions for the California native.

That was two years ago.

"I know I wanted to know how she died," said 13-year-old Victor Rivera last week.

Victor and other students from Bachman's class - now eighth-graders - caught up with Neri last week at Monroe, just south of Gandy Boulevard, for a celebration to launch the book's release this month.

"I knew it was going to be a good book," Victor said, even though at the time he wasn't much of a reader.

"What I liked was the street talk, which made it seem more real."

He had taken it home and read it to his younger sister and mother.

Reluctant reader - Neri had been one himself at that age.

Still, he graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz where he decided to be a film-maker after making an animated film, A Picasso on the Beach, that aired on HBO and Bravo.

Neri, 44, now lives in Temple Terrace with his wife, Maggie Kusenbach, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of South Florida, and 7-year-old daughter Zola who, like her father, likes to draw. Neri started illustrating and writing for kids in 1999. He has published several children's books.

Chess Rumble is his first book for teens, but two others are due out soon.

He hopes to reach urban readers through stories that resonate in language they understand. He'd like to get his stories into all Florida middle schools.

In Chess Rumble, he had intentionally left out details of the sister's death, thinking it wasn't all that important. But Monroe students told him differently. They needed details, such as what caused an argument between Marcus' sister and his friend.

"Why didn't you put pictures of the sister in there?" asked DeAndre Sanders, 12, who considers himself a pretty good artist. Neri explained that an illustrator for publisher Lee & Low Books decides what pictures to include. The hardback retails for $18.95.

Gimond Foster, 11, liked the basketball scenes. Rodney Exume, 11, liked the part when Marcus visited his sister's grave. Iben Huff, 11, ranked it in his top five favorite books.

They wanted to know what inspired Neri to write it, so he told them how he picked characters and events from real life.

The man who teaches Marcus to play chess came from a news story about a guy who learned to play chess in prison and taught urban kids after he was released.

Neri's graphic novel, due out summer 2008, came from Yummy, an 11-year-old boy who made the cover of Time magazine after he was used as a pawn for a drug gang on Chicago's south side. Yummy was too young to be prosecuted for the felonies he committed on behalf of the gang, which eventually killed him.

Neri came to Monroe at reading teacher Bachman's invitation. Both belong to a writers group who write for middle-schoolers. He told the children how chess was a metaphor for life.

"You've got to think three steps ahead. In the story, Marcus was just reacting until he learned to play the game."

Did any of these events happen to you? asked Chasity Freeman, 13.

"Yes," Neri said. He had been impulsive like his main character. And he played chess, although not too well.

He told them how he worked in film animation and with inner city kids on issues such as gangs and smoking in Los Angeles.

Is there going to be a Chess Rumble II? Is there going to be a movie?

Neri hopes.

Aliyah McCray, 11, who writes about her feelings, asked what advice Neri has for young writers.

Let it flow, he told her. Don't get caught up in trying to make a certain part perfect. Go back after you finish.

So how did the sister die?

She had a heart attack from a genetic condition.

Elisabeth Dyer can be reached at edyer@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3321.

Excerpt from Chess Rumble

In my 'hood,

battles is fought every day.

Some on the street corner,

some in the park.

Warriors fall.

Kings are made.

Street gangs,

chess gangs.

Don't make

no difference.

It's all

a game

to me.

[Last modified December 13, 2007, 07:39:08]